Big East Tournament 2012 Scores: UConn Deserves NCAA Bid Despite Syracuse Loss

UConn still deserves a berth in the NCAA tournament despite a narrow second-round Big East Tournament loss to No. 2 Syracuse (30-1) Thursday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

The Huskies finished their season with a 20-13 record (8-10 in conference play) and will now enter Selection Sunday as a bubble team that should make the tournament, barring any unexpected conference-tournament winners.

Huskies head coach Jim Calhoun was proud of his players after Thursday's 58-55 loss, saying via ESPN:

"

The anguish I feel is disappointment for them. They were primed mentally today to do something very special and almost pulled it off...No one can tell you that it wasn't a good team who was wearing blue today. Did we shoot great? No. Did we make great decisions? No. Did we play with great heart and great intensity and did we play for us and each other? Without a doubt, and I couldn't be prouder of them.

"

With all the distractions UConn has been through this season, as well as Calhoun battling through some health-related issues, for them to finish the season with a respectable record and push arguably the best team in the country to the limit in the Big East Tournament is admirable.

I don't like giving out tournament bids for sentimental reasons, and I also don't like rewarding teams based on their past history, but the Huskies really do deserve to participate in March Madness based on their on-court performance this year.

UConn's best wins came against Florida State, West Virginia (twice), Notre Dame, Arkansas and Harvard. The Big East might not have the amount of elite teams it did last season, but the conference still has at least six-to-eight quality teams that make nearly every conference game a challenge.

There's no way that the Huskies should be left out of the NCAA tournament when teams such as Xavier (Atlantic 10), NC State (ACC), St. Joseph's (Atlantic 10) and Iona (MAAC) could possibly get a berth.

The Huskies battled well through a challenging conference and even earned quality wins against SEC and ACC competition.

There is absolutely no reason for the selection committee to exclude the Huskies from March Madness.

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Nicholas Goss is a Featured Columnist on Bleacher Report, follow him on Twitter.